HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION

• The Academy of Medical Sciences of Croatia is a society of elected scientists which is dedicated to the promotion of medical sciences and the the turthering of health. It is an independent, nongovernmental, and nonprofit organization. The seat of the Academy is in Zagreb, while it is active throughout Croatia.

• It was founded in 1961 within the framework of the Croatian Medical Association (Hrvatski liječnički zbor) as the Committee for scientific Research of the General Committee of the Association. In 1971 the Committe was renamed into Medical Academy of Croatian Medical Assocation. In 1983 it was disassociated from Croatian Medical Association and since then has acted as Academy of Medical Sciences of Croatia.

• The supreme governing body of the Academy is the General assembly of all members, which every four years elects a new president of the Academy, new members, the members of Senate, the General Committee, the Supervisory Board and the Honorary Court. In addition, the general Assembly also promotes current members. Total number of members is 422. The acceptance limit is 430. The Academy performs its activities through the Boards, the working bodies for the main scientific fields of medicine. The Boards are (Board of):

Board of Internal Medicine Sciences
Board of Surgery Sciences
Board of Basic Medical Sciences
Board of Psychiatric Sciences
Board of Public Health
Board of Dental Medicine Sciences
Board of Veterinary Medicine Sciences
Board of Pharmaceutical Sciences

• Besides the Boards, interdisciplinary boards are formed according to need. The Senate is the highest advisory body of the General Committee. Members of the Academy can be physicians and scientists active in health protection who have made important contributions to medical research and practice. There are four types of members: - regular members - collaborating members - correspondents and - honorary members

• They are chosen by medical Electoral Assembly of the Academy according to scientific criteria. A candidate for membership in the Academy can be nominated by medical societies which are members of the Croatian Medical Association, the Senate and the Boards in the Academy, or by a medical researcher along with written recommendations from five regular members of the Academy. The basic condition for membership in the Academy is that the individual must have a doctoral degree and proof of scientific activity, while the categories of membership depend on the candidate's volume of activity along with his or her contribution to the medical sciences in Croatia and abroad. While the categories of collaborating member and regular member include only Croatian citizens, foreign scientists may become correspondent or honoray members if their work has contributed to the furthering of medicine and health protection in Croatia. To especially deserving members with long term activity and high distinction in their field, the Academy awards the honorary title of laureate at a special celebration - Dies Academicus.

• The Academy awards annually 2 prizes for the most valuable medical publication. One of them is allocated to the author under 35 years of age. In carrying out its duties, the Academy organizes scientific conferences, symposia, meetings and short graduate courses. These activities include those sponsored solely by the Academy, as well as those co-sponsored by other similar organizations both in Croatia and abroad. In addition, through its studies the Academy opens new programs for health protection and develops them according to the given conditions and circumstances. Together with its members, it has published over 150 books in the field of medicine. The Academy publishes:

"Ljetopis" - Academy's yearly report of it's activities
"Acta Medica Croatica" - a periodical in Croatian
"Social psychiatry" - a periodical
"Croatian Medical Journal" - new periodical, indexed in CC (Current Contents)
"Antibiotic resistance in Croatia - yearly report" - official publication